CareerBuilder.com ranks health informatics as the No. 1 job opportunity in an emerging industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of health information technicians is projected to grow 15 percent through 2024, which is more than double the average growth for all occupations in the U.S. Job titles in this industry include:

• Nurse Informaticists
• Medical Records and Health Information Technicians
• Clinical Data Analyst
• Health IT Consultants Healthcare Informatics Field

You may learn more about the field of informatics by visiting the professional organization site for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, and the American Medical Informatics Association.

There are two tracks for this major:

1)    Information Management track

Students from the Information Management track will focus on analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data. Students in this track will require strong communication and leadership skills which allow them to work across the organization with variety of people including systems designers, programmers on one side and clinicians and healthcare providers on the other side.

2)    Information Technology track

The Information Technology track focuses on information technology and systems, preparing students to build and use software and hardware systems to manage, retrieve, and analyze data to will drive improvements in patient care. Students from the Information Technology track will be predominantly technologists who have an understanding of the healthcare information systems and will help in designing and managing them.

Students majoring in Healthcare Informatics are automatically enrolled as double majors in the Healthcare Informatics and Healthcare Administration programs.

• General Education Requirements (B.S.) – 48 hours
  • Includes PSYC 206 – Introductory Psychology and PSYC 216 – Introductory Psychology Lab as one (1) of the science requirements
  • Includes ECON 203 – Introduction to Microeconomics as the social science requirement
• Healthcare Administration courses – 30 hours
  • IPHC 215 – Introduction to Public Administration
  • IPHC 301 – Professional Role and Practice
  • IPHC 314 – Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine
  • IPHC 334 – Research in Practice
  • IPHC 380 – Introduction to Public Health
  • IPHC 445 – Population-Focused Care
  • IPHC 448 – Healthcare Policy Development
  • IPHC 451 – Health Care Finance
  • IPHC 456 – Leadership in the Healthcare Environment
  • IPHC 457 – Professional Capstone Course
• Healthcare Informatics Core courses – 30 hours
  • BUS 305 – Applied Statistics for Economics and Business
  • CS 150 – Microcomputers and Software Applications I
  • MGT 351 – Management of Organizations
  • MGT 355 – Operations and Supply Chain Management
  • MGT 356 – Process Improvement and Quality Control
  • MGT 357 – Management of Service Operations
  • MGT 373 – Business Analytics
  • MIS 225 – Modern Programming
  • MIS 327 – Information Systems Fundamentals
  • MIS 337 – Business Systems Analysis and Design
• Track Courses – 12 hours
  • Information Management Track – 12 hours from the following:
    • ECON 341 – Healthcare Economics
    • MGT 352 – Organizational Behavior
    • MGT 353 – Human Resource Management
    • MGT 359 – Employment Law and Labor Relations
    • MGT 452 – Advanced Human Resource Management
    • MIS 347 – Business Data Communications
    • MIS 447 – Data Base Management
    • MIS 467 – E-Commerce – Data Driven Web Application Design
    • PSYC 302 – Quantitative and Psychometric Methods
  • Information Technology Track – 12 hours from the following:
    • CS 190 – Programming Fundamentals
    • CS 226 – Programming and Algorithmic Design
    • CS 227 – Programming and Algorithmic Design II
    • CS 313 – Systems Design and Development
    • CS 340 – Software Design and Development
    • MIS 347 – Business Data Communications
    • MIS 447 – Data Base Management
    • MIS 467 – E-Commerce – Data Driven Web Application Design